Embedding Functional English Why and How

1
Embedding Functional EnglishWhy and How?

• Mary Meredith
• The Thomas Cowley High School

2
Aims

• To explore the need for a whole school focus on
  functional English
• To offer guidance on the teaching and learning of
  functional English

3
The Functional Skills Challenge

• In the 21st century, our natural resource is
  our people and their potential is both untapped
  and vast. Skills will unlock that potential. The
  prize for our countryhigher productivity, the
  creation of wealth and social justice.
• The Leitch Report, 2006

4

• School standards have improved over the past
  decade, with more young people than ever
  achieving five good GCSEs. And yet more than one
  in six young people leave school unable to read,
  write and add up properly.

5
Leitchs Skills Gap Target

• 95 of adults to achieve functional literacy
  and numeracy by 2020

6
The Functional Skills Timeline

• Level 1 functional skills have been embedded in
  the programmes of study for English, mathematics
  and ICT at KS3
• Level 2 functional skills will be embedded in the
  programmes of study for KS4
• Functional skills tests will form part of Diploma
  assessment

7
Functional English is embedded when teachers

• know which functional English standards are
  addressed in the SOW
• are confident that they are delivering
  consistent, whole school messages
• are actively teaching rather than merely covering
  functional English skills

8
TCHS the story so far

• functional skills have been mapped across the
  curriculum
• developing effective teaching strategies is a
  performance management target for all staff
• 6.5 hours disaggregated time is available for the
  creation of resources

9
Teaching the Speaking and Listening Standards
10
People generally recall

• 10 of what they read
• 20 of what they hear
• 30 of what they see
• 50 of what they both see and hear
• 70 of what they say
• 90 of what they say and do
• (Ekwall and Shanker)

11
SL 1 Make relevant contributions

• avoid hands-up at the start of lessons
• replace with think-talk-respond

12
Group Discussion Skills Peer Assessment Success
Criteria Rating Stay focussed
on the topic Challenge points politely Suggest
new ideas Build on the ideas of others Ask
questions when a point is not clear Encourage
quiet members of the group Summarise the
discussion
13
SL 2 Contribute to formal discussion

• Impose groupings and change regularly
• Create role play situations to further increase
  formality
• Build on KS2 where children routinely stand to
  share their work

14
SL 3 Be flexible in discussion

• Use a range of group work strategies, e.g.
• Jigsaw
• Envoy
• Allocate specific roles

15
SL 4 Present information clearly

• People retain 95 of what they teach to someone
  else (William Glasser)
• Back-to-Back
• One-to-One
• Plenary role cards

16
Some plenary role cards
17
Teaching theReading Standards
18
R 1 Identify the main points and ideas

• Limit the number of words
• Distillation

19
R 2 Understand texts in detail

• turn text into a flow diagram
• turn text into a storyboard
• turn text into a Venn diagram
• turn text into ranked bullet points
• turn text into a chart
• turn any of the above into text

20
R 3 Read and take appropriate action

• develop the schools VLE to promote independent
  learning

21
Teaching the Writing Standards
22
W 1 Appropriate level of detail

• develop portfolios of successful annotated work
• demonstrate writing
• scaffold through writing frames

23
W. 2 Write in a logical sequence

• immerse learners in connectives
• The Cowley Connectives Kit

24
W. 3 Use suitable language, format and structure

• Avoid relying on question/answer formats. (The
  Because problem)
• Create, where possible, real contexts for writing

25
Task Setting - Clear audience and purpose.?

• Write a recipe for a party milk-shake for
  publication in a Christmas edition of a teenage
  magazine.
• Write up your castle project.
• Rewrite in your own words the story of
  Prometheus.
• Write a booklet for Year 5 pupils explaining the
  origins of the English language.

26

• 5. Produce a script for a three-minute national
  TV news story describing the causes and effects
  of the Bangladesh floods.
• 6. Produce two pages of writing on the title How
  I survived the rainforest.

27
W 5 Use correct grammar

• Teach in English but reinforce through marking
  policy
• E.g. all staff highlight we was (subject verb)
  errors
• E.g. and common homophones (your/youre,
  theyre/there/their).
• Promote standard English in formal situations

28
W 6 Use of correct grammar, punctuation and
spelling

• Encourage proof reading
• Suggest a spelling strategy when introducing a
  key word
• Promote look/cover/try/check

29

• desiccate

30
TCHS Functional English DVD

• Identify those strategies which support the
  development of functional English skills whilst
  at the same time strengthening citizenship
  learning.